The Witch's Familiar
by Jonakhensu
Summary: Ranma Saotome may or may not have wanted to leave Nerima. Either way, he's now in Bayville in a situation he has never experienced before. When everything comes to a head, can the X-Men survive two of the world's most chaotic forces combined?


I own neither Ranma ½ nor X-Men:Evolution. I would like to thank deitarion/SSokolow for being my bet reader. There will be OCs, they will be important. Yes, this is necessary for the functionality of the story. If I didn't use dedicated OCs, I wouldn't have a worthwhile story. Please don't flame me for necessary story mechanics. It won't change anything, and will only cause annoyance all around. Flame me for messing up a characterization or something if you must, but constructive criticism is the only type that'll actually change anything. Sorry about the rant, I'll start the story now.

– Chapter 1: Cat in a Box –

Neko shook its head as it ran, jumping from roof to roof, as though the very dogs of hell had slipped their leashes and were snapping at its heels. They very well might have been, for all Neko knew. All it knew, from right as the Human let Neko out, was that escaping was of paramount importance. This all-possessing need to flee was a foreign emotion for Neko, but it knew that the Human would never run from anything, bar other cats, unless there was an exceedingly good reason. As such, Neko ran instead of investigating itself.

The False Cat, with its strange purple markings, had been rather easy to lose. While the False Cat seemed to be around each time Neko had been let out to play, it was not very good at holding on while Neko rapidly bounced from object to object. Once the False Cat had been dislodged Neko bolted, zigzagging as it went. Spring boarding off of moving vehicles and traveling on trucks for minutes at a time served to both increase Neko's overall speed while making it even harder to be to be tracked.

All of Neko's attempts to muddle its trail were rendered moot when the sky opened up in a downpour. Mewling miserably, as it was now wet and cold, Neko began looking for a place to wait out the storm. While it could easily create an entrance into any of nearby buildings Neko remembered what had happened the last time it had done so. The Food Giver had frowned, something Neko knew to be wrong on a purely instinctual level. That frown caused Neko to feel something odd: guilt. It is rather difficult for one such as Neko to properly express guilt, so it had chosen to simply rub against her legs and resolve to never create an entrance in such a manner again without a much better reason than 'I want in.'

The rain began to intensify while the temperature began to drop, severely testing Neko's commitment to its mental promise. Just as Neko was considering giving into necessity, despite how it would make the Food Giver frown, fortune struck. A relatively slow moving freight train was crossing in front of Neko's path with boxcars, much like the Human and the Panda- Neko much preferred this name to the Panda's old one- had traveled in years before. If not for a solitary stray cat, Neko would never have learned that these moving boxes sometimes had one detail to watch for. There! One of the boxcars had a door that was open, providing an easy entrance that would not upset the Food Giver to use.

With a happy meow, Neko surged forward, determined to reach the shelter the railroad had seen fit to provide. With the heavy rain, it had only been able to see the open door as it passed by, and the door was gaining distance even as Neko charged. Pouring most of its reserves into a desperate and frantic attempt, Neko sped up even more, leaving furrows in the pavements as its claws dug in for added traction. After a run much further than it would have cared for, Neko came abreast to the boxcar's door. With one last extra burst of speed, Neko leapt inside, collapsing in a heap, panting, once it knew it was safe, for the moment. After it had regained some energy, Neko did what it could to dry off while not removing the remnants of the Human's clothing. Neko had no concept of modesty itself, but it did know that the Human would be upset to wakeup without clothing, even more so with this outfit. The Human was quite attached to it, for some reason. It was not very useful as camouflage at all, though it did feel rather nice.

While the boxcar was warmer than outside, that was only by virtue of being significantly drier and out of the wind, so Neko was still cold, even if the rain was no longer expending all of its heat. It would have find some way of staying warm, and quickly, or it might not make it through the night. Looking around the boxcar, noticed a number of wooden crates. Neko was going to investigate the crates to see if one of them could keep it warm, when it began shivering violently. Realizing that its heat loss was still far too rapid and would quickly lead to hypothermia, Neko made a decision that the Human would more than likely regret; staying alive is of significantly more importance than keeping the Human happy. With its immediate course of action set, Neko turned to the task of removing the rest of its covering, with its claws as necessary. The remaining clothing was easily rendered into shreds, leaving Neko bare to the world, not that it really noticed, beyond being marginally warmer for the moment.

Still shivering lightly, Neko made its way over and around the crates, looking to see if one might offer more protection from the elements. If it had been capable of such reasoning, Neko would have wondered about what kind of moron would ship anything without properly securing the container in which it is shipped. Regardless of what thoughts Neko may or may not have had on the proper way to ship anything, it was quite pleased to find an open crate filled with white silk. The crate was quite strange, in that, while unsecured, it was hinged on one side. By pushing up on the cover, opposite the hinges, it created just enough to crawl in through, allowing the cover to close behind it, leaving Neko in very soft cocoon.

Ten minutes later found Neko much more comfortable as the silk it had used as a nest began to trap its body heat. Regardless of the material, fabric has long been used to stay warm. While several materials will keep someone warm even when wet, such as wool, silk is most assuredly not one of them, especially at the thickness Neko had been wearing, so, where the wet clothing it had removed had been worse than useless in retaining body heat, the dry silk in the crate, and even the crate itself, were keeping Neko warm. Neko was quite pleased with this development.

As Neko began to warm up to an acceptable and comfortable temperature, its shivering stilled and it drifted off to sleep, deciding that rest was a more immediate concern than food. It would let the human take care of finding the food. Neko had never done very well at obtaining food, especially without using methods the Food Giver would surely frown upon, and a frowning Food Giver was to be avoided at all costs, even if it meant waiting for a decent meal.

There are many times in which falling asleep inside of a box, of any sort, would constitute a Bad Idea. While this might not automatically warrant the capital letters, as there are several instances in which this is a good idea, doing so on a moving vehicle, especially when you do not know the destination almost requires the use of the caps lock key. If Neko could read, then it might have resisted sleep's sweet embrace and found a better place to lay its weary head, but, unfortunately, Neko could not read, and thus had no warning as to what would happen should it choose to sleep there, in its comfortable crate filled with silk. Of course, Neko would not have particularly cared anyways, as it knew that the Human would wake in its stead and take care of any problems that had developed during its slumber. Besides, the Human had been running from something, and this was a great way to get away quickly without leaving much of a trail to follow.

While Neko slept, the train continued on its course, as trains are want to do. With the ample padding and insulation of the crate and its silk, Neko stayed asleep through a series of thumps, bumps, and creaking. Then again, it probably would have slept through an earthquake while sleeping on concrete. If this quirk was due to exhaustion or simply Neko being an exceptionally heavy sleeper is not known. Either way, Neko was completely unaware that while it slept, its crate was taken off of the train and placed in a truck. The truck then made its way through a series of turns, legally ambiguous maneuvers, and downright stupid evasive drills before stopping in front the loading bay of a large plane. The crate was efficiently moved from the truck to where it would be secured for a long flight in the cargo hold. When the men loading the plane noticed that the crate was not secured as mandated by company policy, they quickly nailed it shut. If anything where to happen because the box was open, it would be their heads on the chopping block, so a nail gun was their friend. Once everything was set, the plane taxied to the runway and took off to locals unknown. Five minutes after the plane had left the ground, the driver of the truck was arrested for numerous traffic violations and resisting arrest.

Inside the box, Neko slept on, content in its snug confines lined in silk. It was a very comfortable rest, though it did get rather deeper than Neko had expected as the plane gained altitude. Hypoxia is a wonderful sleep aid. As such, Neko was quite unconscious when the plane landed in California and the crate was loaded into another plane. Neko was just beginning to regain consciousness when the plane reached altitude. Any chance it had of properly awakening before reaching its final destination vanished along with the oxygen concentration. The lack of oxygen, along with Neko's initial exhaustion made it so that Neko would have no way to regain its normal, as much as it could be called such, mental faculties for at least an hour after landing.

After the plane landed, the crate was unloaded into another truck. These workers were much less careful with the crate and caused Neko to stir. Still very tired and comfortable, Neko rolled over and went back to sleep. It took the truck a full hour to navigate the streets, giving Neko plenty of time to begin the slow path to returning to full consciousness. It jolted awake when the crate was roughly dropped to the floor, its journey done. However, the trip had taken its toll on Neko, leaving it very groggy and disoriented, not nearly as aware of its surroundings as it usually was.

Yes, Neko was quite confused. It had gone to sleep quite some time ago, and it had expected the Human to wake up. Instead, it was awake, something it could not remember happening before. The longest it could recall being awake was for only a few hours, the first time it was let out to play. Neko missed the original Warm Lap, even if she had smelt of lies. Neko's play dates had only gotten sorter as of late, even though it was let out more; something just kept cutting its playtime short. Well, now it was given a truly unique opportunity. For the first time ever, Neko would be able to experience a full day. Now for the first, and most important step, breakfast. Of course, it would help if Neko knew of any Food Giver approved methods of finding food when it wasn't able to hunt for it.

Outside of the crate, a number of orderlies were manhandling one of the patients back to her cell. This meant, of course, that Neko had ended up at an insane asylum. This patient, however, did not have one of these nifty cells that was a simple room with the padded walls of fun. No, this patient's cell was made of a strange metal, and three powerful hydraulic rams were used to hold the walls and the ceiling in place. As the patient continued to struggle, bound in a nice white coat that let her hug herself all day long, one of the orderlies called out, "Just another day in Arkham Sanitarium, isn't, boys?" There was much laughter, including by the patient, even if hers was a little more shrill than generally acceptable. This brought up the question of why a mentally and emotionally unstable patient was even allowed to read anything that would allow her to understand such a joke.

It should be noted that this was not, in fact, Arkham Sanitarium. Nor was this asylum located near Arkham Massachusetts itself. Indeed, there was no Arkham Massachusetts at all, save in the writing of H. P. Lovecraft and a number of his successors. This is quite fortunate, as watching Neko take on a Deep One would be most distressing. Of course, arriving in Gotham city, which also did not exist outside of fiction, would not have been much of an improvement, though it may have saved Harleen Quinzel quite a lot of trouble in the long run. Neko was rather fortunate, indeed, that it had not arrived at either of the Arkham Sanitariums, but had instead found its way to Bayville Psychiatric Hospital. Pay no attention to the orderly reading up on his medieval metaphysics in the corner.

After Wanda Maximoff was securely locked in her cell, the head orderly, Hank Henry, went back to the small storeroom Professor Charles Xavier used for his meetings with Wanda. Xavier was a middle aged man confined to a wheelchair who liked to live in a house filled with hormonal teenagers. He had more reason to be put into an asylum than Wanda did. The fact that he was a psychic, and that all of those children in his care were mutants, only made his mental instability more apparent.

Charles was also the founder and head of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. It was, though most people were unaware of this fact, the largest school for mutants on the planet. Of course the existence of mutants was also kept away kept away from the populace. About the only place where mutants walked around openly was in Nerima, Japan, and that was only because people couldn't distinguish between mutants, high-end martial artists, and various magical effects. The ambiguity was so bad that even most of the mutants didn't know they weren't merely under some form of spell or something along those lines.

Moving beyond the insanity of Charles Xavier and global politics, the Hank walked with, or rather beside, Xavier while the man wheeled himself back to the atrium. This was mostly a formality as the professor most definitely knew his way around, having been here numerous times before. There was also the small matter of patient confidentiality. Then again, with a telepath as powerful as Charles Xavier, nothing was confidential unless he made a conscious effort to keep it so. Even though it was ultimately pointless, they had to keep up appearances, in case the regional supervisor stopped by to pay an unexpected visit.

Thus, as Charles was being brought out through the loading bay, as the front entrance was in no way handicap accessible, he passed by a large wooden crate. Now, it should be pointed out that, due to its excessively sturdy construction, if it were for nearly any one else, Wanda's cell was kept near the loading dock, as the supporting structures would not have fit into a smaller space. As he rolled past Wanda's cell, he calmed her, coincidentally allowing the orderlies to back away and close the cell around her. They left the straight jacket on as they had never tested how effectively her cell could hold her if she wanted to escape, and they really wanted to avoid a field test. Now that his task for the time being was finished, he allowed his mind to wander, drifting aimlessly over the thoughts of those around him, only taking care to not dig too deeply, trying to stay above even full surface thoughts. Through his idle drifting, he found something rather odd, so, with a great deal of bemusement, he turned to the orderly beside him and asked, "Why do you have a cat in that box?"

The Hank blinked. "A cat?" he asked, just as perplexed as the Professor. "There can't be a cat in there; the crate came from Japan." At Xavier's quirked eyebrow, he continued, "Our administrator is a little eccentric." Which means he was probably one step away from being a patient, himself. He most likely had the money to get around that, much as Xavier did. "I don't know why, but he decided to get some silk straight jackets. Hell, I didn't even know they made the damn things." While such articles most likely do exist, they are not easy to find, and, as such, must be special ordered.

"This is rather peculiar," Xavier agreed, giving no indication to whether he was referring to the cat or the administrator's order. There really was no reason for a cat to go into a box of straitjackets, as there should not have been any food to entice it in before the box was sealed at the warehouse. This line of reasoning was, of course, based off on a number of logical assumptions, of which a number were wrong. It is always good to know that even the most powerful known psychic on the planet can be wrong at times.

"True," the orderly agreed, "but how did it survive the trip? I mean, sure, the thing was shipped express, so it wouldn't have starved, but it went up in an airplane, twice! No cat could survive that. Hell, even stowaways rarely survive going up once." While those were excellent points, it did not change the fact that Xavier was feeling the mind of a cat within the crate.

"Hm, perhaps it's time to let the cat out of the box," Xavier mused. No, he had not just made a pun. He was far too scholarly for that. Dealing with teenagers exhibiting superhuman abilities had not warped his sense of humor in the slightest. Not in the slightest.

"Well, we will need to open the crate at some point," the orderly stated. "We might as well do it now." It was a wooden crate filled with silk straitjackets… and a cat. The cat is very important to the contents of the crate as it was not on the packing slip, and, indeed, had no business being in the box at all. In any case, it was time to let it out.

The orderly grabbed another orderly and two pry bars to aid in the removal of the crate's top. The people who had nailed the cover down had been rather enthusiastic. The hinges were not making things any easier. To that point, why did a shipping company put hinges on their crates, anyways? They served no practical purpose. Xavier and the orderlies decided that it would be best to ignore it as a quirk of the Kuno Textile Company.

After several minutes of difficulty, the orderlies decided to call it a lost cause; they retrieved a power drill and a screwdriver bit from the nearby maintenance cabinet. Once the hinges were removed and no longer removing what leverage they could produce, the orderlies made quick work of the job, and the cover was removed in just a few moments. Once the cover was removed, the orderlies and Professor Xavier crowded around, eager to see the mystery cat.

Neko had heard the jostling of the crate and the whining of the drill while those outside where opening the box; this made Neko happy, as it was beginning to consider using its rather destructive means to escape, and that would make the Food Giver frown. The Food Giver should never frown. Now that the cover was off, it was free to leave and find some food. With this in mind, Neko jumped out of the crate and began to look around.

One of the orderlies looked at the so-called cat and commented, "That… is not a cat." What stood before them was most assuredly not a cat. The most obvious reason for this is that cats very rarely look like humans, at all. As in the morphology is completely wrong for the two to ever be mistaken. That said, a small redheaded girl, her age impossible to determine by sight alone, crouched, quite nude, in front of them, sniffing the air. It was rather strange, even for a psych ward housing Wanda Maximoff.

As it was approaching midday, lunch had been prepared for the patients; the food of the more volatile patients, such as the true psychos and those with destructive powers and anger issues, was also laced with a mild sedative. One of the female interns was bringing Wanda her lunch. Today it was a tuna fish sandwich. The administrator did believe that variety is the spice of life, after all. The intern was assigned to feed Wanda because, quite frankly, the young mutant scared the shit out of the orderlies at times, even when sedated and restrained. This was their third intern that month, and it was only the 24th, though this one had lasted longer than the first two already, by over a full week. If she managed to make it through just two more weeks, the asylum would offer her a full time position. Sure, there were moments of blind panic, usually revolving around one Wanda Maximoff, but the pay was good, as were the benefits. And, if she became Wanda's primary orderly, she would get paid even more. Three hardened veterans of the field had already tried. The best had lasted six months. This had all happened years ago, before Wanda's powers and anger could fully develop.

Neko growled; no, that was only Neko's stomach. This was the first time in years that Neko could actually remember being more than a little hungry, let alone starving. There were a number of advantages to having the Human around, and getting food was one of them. Neko continued to sniff the air, having caught a slight scent of something. It was fish; fish is always good. Neko could still remember the shark it had caught a while back. It was quite tasty. With this yummy thought in mind, Neko stalked the smell, and, upon finding the source, it pounced, bowling the human with the food over. While the human was not a Warm Lap, she was comfortable enough and would suffice for now. Besides, she brought food, even if it did taste a little funny.

The intern was a little stunned. While she knew her chosen field came with the risk of assault from one of the patients, she never expected something like this to happen. Sitting on her lap and eating one of her patient's food was an unexpectedly heavy, smaller than average girl. Even more disconcerting was that the girl was not using her hands to eat and was making cat noises. Once the intern was sure that the girl in her lap was not about to attack her any time soon, she looked around to see if anything was being done to rectify the situation. Oh good, one of the orderlies had gotten a tranquillizer gun.

"Ash," the orderly called out. "Sit still so I can take the shot without worrying about hitting you." Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams rolled her eyes; it was a tranquilizer, so the worst it could do was knock her out for a while. Considering they also had access to tasers, she wouldn't worry too much about the gun. Once the orderly had shot the girl, who yowled in surprise, the orderly held up the gun and proudly proclaimed, "This is my Boomstick!" It should be noted that Ashley absolutely loathes the Evil Dead series, even though she found them, when not used in reference to her life, hilarious. She suspected that her parents were either feeling cruel at the time or were raving fans, as they had admitted to naming her after Bruce Campbell's character. While the name, itself, did not bother her, the number of jokes people made because of it did. Even more annoyingly, enough people, including her parents, called her Ash and not Ashley that she would more readily respond to her nickname. With a sigh, Ash looked down at the girl sleeping in her lap. Only the girl was not asleep and was most definitely pissed.

Neko had been happily eating when it felt a sharp pain in its rump. Turning towards the source of the pain, it saw a male holding up a stick. Neko vaguely recognized the shape and classified it as 'Bad Thing, destroy on sight.' With that simple thought, Neko swiped a paw at the male. As the gun, and most of the male's coverings, was shredded, Neko purred contentedly before turning back to its meal.

Xavier looked on in shock; the orderlies looked on in shock; Ash absently began to pet the girl in shock, after the girl had nudged her hand in a decidedly feline manner. "I don't understand it," Xavier muttered to himself. "She doesn't feel like a mutant, so how did she do that?" Turning to the Hank, he asked, "Could you send me a blood sample? Assuming you can take one, that is. I'd like to test her for an X-gene, and I think her mindset could interfere with my normal methods."

'Sure," the orderly replied. "It's not like we can just send the blood out to a normal lab for a test like that. Hell, we require non-disclosure agreements just to work here. Even our interns have to sign them." This does explain why the asylum keeps getting new interns after the old ones flee in terror.

"Yes, well, thank you for that. If she is able to create energy constructs that effortlessly, then her genetics should be fascinating," Xavier mused. This girl, after she regained a human mindset, could be an asset to the X-Men, of course, that was assuming she retained a relatively peaceful attitude, of course.

Ash stared at the orderly who had shot the girl on her lap in shock. The redhead had, with a single wave of her hand, destroyed both a gun and most of a man's clothing, from ten feet away, without harming the man. As far as she knew, only Wanda could manage anything like that. Ash was rather annoyed when she realized that, since the cat-girl seemed to like her, at least comparably, and she had yet to run screaming from her duties with Wanda, if the redhead were to be admitted into the asylum, she would more than likely be given the bulk of the duties taking care of the girl. It is no wonder the other interns had left; whoever decided on the duty roster was a jerk, especially since, as an intern, she wouldn't even be getting paid for this shit, and most of her duties were far more stressful than the others', even if she only took care of a few patients at a time, though she always seemed to be chosen to take care of the resident mutant.

'She does look cute like that, though,' Ash thought to herself, looking down at the girl currently residing in her lap. The redhead had finished her meal, somehow still awake with two different types of sedatives in her. While the drug in the food was only meant to keep the patients reasonably docile, and was doled out in carefully measured amounts, Wanda was on the second highest dose among the patients; the patient with the highest dose was extremely violent and weighted over three hundred pounds, most of which was muscle. Ash was quite glad that she had not had to deal with him yet, though she suspected it was only a matter of time before his name appeared on her duty roster; the tranquilizer darts the orderlies used, and she was planning on carrying on her person if she was ever assigned to that patient, were specially formulated to knock him out quickly and keep him out for several hours. With all of this in mind, Ash marveled that the girl was still awake and was now washing her face in a fashion that could only be defined as catlike. "It's almost as though she really is a cat," Ash mused. Distractedly, she continued stroking the girl's back and only realized what she was doing when the girl began purring intensely enough to cause her entire body to vibrate. Human vocal cords are not supposed to work that way! Well, perhaps by using the circular breathing masters of the didgeridoo employ, the purring could be sustained, but at this intensity, the idea was just ridiculous.

Neko, for its part, was feeling rather content at the moment. It had finally gotten a meal, even if it was a little small, it felt as though it had rolled around in an entire patch of catnip, and now it was being petted by someone who obviously knew what she was doing. Petter, Neko decided, would be a fitting name for this human, at least until something better came to mind. The other humans were keeping their distance, and none of them had gotten another Bad Thing, so Neko ignored them for the time being, It felt the occasional nudge, but those too, while rather annoying, were ignored, especially since it could not tell where they were coming from. Yawning mightily, Neko stretched, working the kinks out of its body in preparation for a nice nap. Despite the long sleep it had had earlier, Neko was already tired again. Looking into Petter's face, Neko chose to express its appreciation for the food and Petter's lap space. It was a very nice lap, too. Darting its head forward, Neko gave Petter's nose a quick lick before curling up in her lap, allowing sleep to claim it.

Ash could only blink in shock. She had just been licked on the nose. She had just been licked on the nose by a nude, well endowed girl who acted like a cat and could shred metal from over ten feet away. The girl had also eaten the food meant for Wanda Maximoff, meaning that Ash would have to go get more, including dosing it correctly. And by the time she had the sandwich ready, especially if she also had to take care of the girl currently in her lap, judging by the faces of the orderlies around her, it was a definite possibility, she would be stuck feeding Wanda without any medication in her system and without Professor Xavier around to calm her down. There was a reason they fed her right after one of her sessions with the man. He refused to see her while medicated, though, so certain precautions had to be taken, no matter how annoying, dangerous, or apparently stupid. At least, that was as far as Ash could tell. This was the only visit Xavier had come on during her internship so far. All in all, today was shaping up to be even more surreal than usual, and she was used to being the victim of some very strange pranks. Ash took a moment to mentally bitch about her name again,

Charles Xavier was confused, a state he was not intimately familiar with. Being a telepath made it hard to find someone who could surprise him, let alone confuse him, yet this girl was doing an admirable job. Her mind was, as far as his moderate probes could tell, entirely feline, though there were a number of inconsistencies. First, she had the mind of a cat; Xavier could not fathom a reason for a girl to have such a mindset, especially to such a degree. Second, she had used what was, quite obviously, an energy attack, of some sort. While Xavier was quite aware that such things were possible, he had never seen such effortless execution and control. The blades had destroyed a gun and a man's clothing, but had left the man unscathed, all with a casual wave of the hand. To make things even stranger, even disregarding the feline mindset, the girl's mind did not have the feel of a mutant, though he had every intention of having blood work done to that effect.

Hank Henry groaned in resignation. It was glaringly evident that the girl was to b a resident here, in his asylum. At least it looked as though she had intrigued the Professor enough to pay her room and board. It was bad enough that he, and not Xavier would have to fill out the Jane Doe's admittance forms. The forms were always annoying, without having to do the extra forms regarding her lack of identity, especially since he would have to check with the Japanese authorities to see if she was a missing person. He couldn't even foist the paperwork onto any his underlings since he had technically discovered the girl. Looking over to where the girl was sleeping in Ash's lap, he considered the future. Assuming Ash didn't snap within the next week, he was going to talk to the administrator about hiring her full time. If she was, as it seemed, the only person their Jane would allow near her, Ash was going to be quite busy handling both Jane and Wanda. He felt bad about having to force the interns to assume most of the duties regarding the young mutant, but there was little alternative. After an incident a number of years ago, Wanda refused to allow a male to take care of her, and she had quickly scared all of the female orderlies away. Ash, at least, seemed to have what it took to handle her, and it seemed that Jane would be no more difficult. Personally, he attributed Ash's resilience to her name, or rather, the years of enduring jokes and pranks about her name, something he was intimately familiar with as well. Damn sadistic parents. No matter what the source, he hoped she would be able to manage caring for their two strangest patients. Otherwise, they would be forced to continue torturing the interns.

"Now that she's asleep," Hank began, "let's get her to a room and give her some clothes. Can't keep her naked like that, after all. Since she seems to like you, Ash, go with her and keep her calm if she wakes up. With the amount of drugs in her, our new Jane Doe should be out for quite some time. Then again, she should have been out within a minute of being shot, so I'm not taking any chances." Gesturing to two of the orderlies, he said, "You two get a stretcher and carry her to room 214. We'll figure out how to handle her later." Room 214 was one of the relatively high security rooms, not as secure as Wanda's, obviously, but the average gorilla of a patient would have trouble braking out. That said, given a reason, it was doubtful it would even slow Jane down.

Ash sighed in annoyance as the Jane Doe was lifted from her lap and placed on the stretcher. The grunts of exertion from the orderlies did make her feel slightly better, though. Her annoyance stemmed from the fact that, while she was standing, Charles Xavier was being wheeled out of the building the time he had allotted for the visit over. And Wanda had yet to be fed. Joy. Currently, the only thing working in her favor, regarding Wanda, was that, underneath all of her rage, the girl seemed to want help. Too bad her rage was almost all consuming. So now Ash was off to bed down Jane before heading back to the kitchens to make another sandwich. This day was going to suck.


End file.
